By Noah Nobert
Ademola Adeleke-backed Osun State Independent Electoral Commission, has not paid about 7,000 ad hoc staff it recruited for the last February 22, 2025 controversial local government election their stipend, this medium has learnt.
The total sum of money owed the workers was put at N1.5 billion and the Commission has refused to pay the affected people.
Those recruited had gone through rigorous training preparatory to the poll for a period of two weeks before the election day.
Their training, feeding and transportation allowances, it was gathered, were to be paid after the poll.
Some of those recruited, it was gathered, relocated to the premises of the Commission in Aderin Area, Osogbo, three days before the election day to minimize their expenses.
But three weeks after the poll, the workers have not been paid, leading to apprehension among those concerned.
One of them, who preferred anonymity, while speaking to this medium on the matter, said “We were engaged for the last local government election. I was posted to Osogbo local government.
“We engaged in rigorous training for almost two weeks before the poll. OSSIEC officials relating with us said we would be paid our training, election duty and transportation allowances in bulk after the poll.
“Election had been conducted the way they wanted to and we are yet to receive any money from OSSIEC.
“Ad hoc staff recruited across the state are over 7,000. None of us has been paid till now. We are getting apprehensive already. Some of our colleagues were arrested on the election day and detained by the police.
“We are displeased. We want to call on the governor to prevail on OSSIEC to pay us before the matter go out of control.”
